US Visa Interview Wait in Guatemala City: Current Times by Visa Class

The single most useful thing to know about this table is that the two B1/B2 columns answer different questions. One predicts when you could get an appointment if you started today. The other reports what people who already went through it actually experienced last month. Treating them as one number is how plans go wrong.

The two numbers, and which one to plan on

The State Department publishes both for visitor visas, and defines each one on the same page.

Next available appointment — the forward-looking one. The column “predicts when you can expect to receive an appointment at that location”, and State adds that “New appointments are added regularly, so you may get an appointment sooner.” This is the number to build a travel plan around.

Average wait time — the backward-looking one. State says those columns “show how long people typically waited for interviews (measured from fee payment to visa interview date) in the previous month.” It is a realised outcome, not a forecast.

Why they disagree is not a mystery; State explains it: “Because we regularly release new appointments, an applicant can move their appointment to an earlier available slot and ultimately wait less time. When they do not move their appointment earlier, their average wait time could be longer than the present-day next available appointment.” In other words, the gap between the two numbers is roughly the cost of not checking back. People who rebook into released slots land near the lower figure; people who book once and forget land near the higher one.

Two more definitions that change how you read the figures:

• Months are not calendar months. “We calculate months in 30-day increments and half months in 15-day increments. This includes weekends and holidays when embassies close.” So 1 Month means about 30 days from now, holidays included — not “some time next month”.
• The clock starts at payment. Everything counted runs from fee payment to interview date.

The fee is what starts your clock

Because the measured wait begins at fee payment, the nonimmigrant visa application processing fee is not an administrative afterthought — it is the starting gun. State’s published tiers:

The fee is listed as a “Nonimmigrant visa application processing fee (non-refundable) for all categories below”, and the embassy repeats the point in its own words: “Visa application fees are non-refundable and non-transferable.”

Practical consequence: a completed DS-160 sitting unpaid is not in the queue. If your travel is fixed, paying sooner moves your counted wait earlier, and it is the step people most often postpone.

How Guatemala City compares with the region

Context, not a shopping list — see the caveat under the table.

Same State Department table and same read as the Guatemala City block above; page stamp 17-SEP-2026.

Two things are worth reading off the 20 September 2026 state of that table — and both can change at the next monthly update, so read the stamp under it rather than this paragraph. First, Guatemala City sits in the middle of the Central American pack on visitor visas, not at either end: San Salvador, Tegucigalpa and Managua were all under half a month, Panama City was level with Guatemala City at a month, and the long queues were San José at nine months, Bogotá at seven and Mexico City at five. Second, the student and exchange classes (F, M, J) and the petition-based classes (H, L, O, P, Q) read under half a month at almost every post in that list — the only exceptions were Panama City’s student classes and Mexico City’s petition-based classes, both at a month. The B1/B2 queue is the only one that meaningfully varies.

But the embassy says to apply where you live or hold nationality. The U.S. Embassy in Guatemala’s own visa page states that “Applicants for U.S. nonimmigrant visas should schedule their visa interview appointments at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in their country of residence or nationality.” Combined with fees being non-transferable, shopping for a shorter queue in San Salvador is not a plan; it is a way to spend $185 twice.

Where you actually book it

For Guatemala the scheduling system is AIS, at ais.usvisa-info.com — the site the U.S. Embassy Guatemala’s own contact card names, alongside the visa email Guatemala.Visas@gdit-gss.com, the switchboard +502 2354 0000, in-country line 2268 1294 and the address “Boulevard Austriaco 11-51, Zone 16 Guatemala City, Guatemala”. The AIS landing page describes itself as “the official U.S. visa service for non-citizens traveling to the United States.”

A lot of English-language guidance still points Guatemalan applicants at ustraveldocs.com. On 20 September 2026 the Guatemala path there returned a 404 to every fetch method we tried, and opening it in a browser redirected to the generic ustraveldocs landing page with a “Choose your location” picker. If a guide sends you to a ustraveldocs Guatemala page, that guide has not been checked recently.

One caveat on the embassy’s own opening hours

The embassy’s visa page carries two different opening times in the same page, both read on the same day. Its body paragraph says the Consular Section “is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Friday”, excepting U.S. and Guatemalan holidays; its location card says it “is open from 7:00 am to 4:30 pm Monday through Thursday, and 7:00 am to 12:00 pm on Friday (except on U.S. and Guatemalan holidays).”

The 7:30 versus 7:00 opening is unresolved at the source, and we are not going to pick one for you. Closing times agree — 4:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, midday Friday — and both statements carry the same holiday exception. If your appointment is early, assume 7:30 and arrive for 7:00.

Guatemalan public holidays that could close it are on our 2026 holidays page, and what does and does not stay open on those days is on bank holiday hours.

What these numbers do not tell you

1. They are not a processing time. The table measures the wait to the interview. State defines the wait as running from fee payment to the interview date, so nothing after the interview is in it.
2. They do not cover waived interviews. State: “Embassies and consulates may waive the in-person interview requirement for eligible applicants. Wait times for these appointments are not reflected in the table below.” We found no published Guatemala City waiver criteria, so this page states none.
3. “NA” is not “unavailable”. On the Guatemala City row the crew and transit column reads NA, which means no figure is published for that class at that post.
4. The source’s own rule does not match its own table. State writes that “Average wait times are provided for B1/B2 visas only in cases where the next available appointment is more than three months away.” Guatemala City publishes an average of 1.5 Months against a next-available of 1 Month — which does not satisfy that rule, and neither does Tegucigalpa’s 5 Months against under half a month. We reproduce the cells as published and flag the mismatch rather than quietly dropping a column. It sits in the source, not in our reading.
5. They are updated monthly, not daily. “We update interview appointment wait time information monthly. Average wait times do not guarantee the availability of an appointment.” The stamp on the block at the top of this page is the source’s own.

Two current notices that change what applicants must do

Both are on the U.S. Embassy Guatemala visa page as of 20 September 2026, and both catch people out.

Social media privacy settings. The embassy instructs that applicants for “an A-3, C-3 (if a domestic worker), G-5, H1-B, H-3, H-4 dependent of H-1B and H-3, F, I, J, M, K-1, K-2, K-3, Q, R-1, R-2, S, T, TN, TD, or U nonimmigrant visa are instructed to adjust the privacy setting on all social media accounts to “public” or “open” to facilitate vetting necessary to establish their identity and admissibility to the United States under U.S. law.” Note which classes: B1/B2 visitor applicants are not in that list.

Presidential Proclamation 10998. The page states that applicants subject to it “may still submit visa applications and attend scheduled interviews, but they may be ineligible for visa issuance or admission to the United States.” The proclamation is described on that page as suspending or limiting entry for nationals of 39 countries, effective 1 January 2026. The embassy page does not list the countries, so we read the proclamation itself: Proclamation 10998 of December 16, 2025, published in the Federal Register on December 19, 2025 (90 FR 59717). The word Guatemala does not appear anywhere in its text (searched 25 September 2026), so Guatemalan nationals are not among the countries it suspends or limits. (Corrected 25 September 2026: this paragraph previously said we would not state whether Guatemala was on the list.)

Other US visa rules to know in 2026

• Visa integrity fee. Enacted by Public Law 119-21 (section 100007) at an initial $250 per issued nonimmigrant visa; USCIS said in July 2025 it will be implemented in a future publication. A Federal Register search on 25 September 2026 returned two documents mentioning the fee, and neither starts collection. Details in the FAQ above.
• Visa bonds. The State Department’s Visa Bond Program became permanent on August 3, 2026 (bonds of $10,000, $15,000 or $20,000 for B-1/B-2 applicants from listed countries). We could not read the country list on 25 September 2026.
• Every other US federal action touching Guatemalans, dated and sourced: our 2026 tracker.

Related on this site

• Parents applying to visit family in the US: do they need an invitation letter?
• Travelling the other direction — Guatemalan consular services for Guatemalans in the USA: consulates hub, passport from the USA.
• Entering Guatemala rather than leaving it: visa requirements and the 90-day CA-4 rule, and the digital nomad visa.
• Planning the trip itself: direct flights to Guatemala and the airport transfer options.